Ed Christian's World

The Israelites Never Watched The Ten Commandments…

When the Israelites came out of Egypt and dwelled in the desert, what did they do at night in Sinai? Did they have movie night? Did they have a big screen and sit around watching the Ten Commandments?

The Israelites didn’t watch the Ten Commandments because they lived it. The shepherds didn’t put on a Christmas play, because they were the Christmas play. The disciples didn’t commemorate Resurrection Sunday, because it was Resurrection Sunday.

We also, are supposed to be biblical characters! One of the secrets of becoming a biblical character is that you don’t speak about the Bible just as something from the past, but Bible times are also now. You are living the resurrection now.

Today is Bethlehem, now is Jesus, today is Resurrection Sunday. Today is Pentecost, the power to go out to all nations. Live the power of God. Move in His power today and in the Spirit.

Go out in the power of the Great Commission; be a biblical character. More importantly, be of biblical character. Live as if the Bible is now, because it is.

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:11-12


Today, read the Bible; but don’t just read the Bible. Live the Bible; live your day as if you were in the Bible.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Every Problem Has A Nose…

Every problem has a nose. Let me explain. Jerusalem was surrounded and under siege by the Assyrian army. It looked like certain destruction; there was no way out. King Hezekiah took the matter to the Lord in prayer.

The Lord answered and said regarding the Assyrian king, “Because of your raging against me and because your arrogance has come up to my ears; therefore, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips and I will turn you back by the way you came.”

Maybe, you’ve been feeling under siege lately. Why has God allowed it? Perhaps to strengthen your faith. God at times, allows your faith to be challenged so that He may show you that He is God Almighty.

God wants to show you that not only is He Lord despite the problem, but He is Lord over the problem! Even the problem is subject to Him! Bring your problem to God.

He’ll use a hook and a bridle to turn that problem around for His glory, and actually bless you. So don’t despair. Rejoice and give thanks! God has the hook, and every problem has a nose.

 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

Come to the throne of God and give Him your burdens today. Stop worrying. Pray to the Lord to take your problem by the nose and turn it around for His glory.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Upward Call…

Many believers talk about being called. They will say, “I know I am called or being called; God is calling me or there is a calling on my life.” Imagine, there is someone outside your house saying, “come on out!”

The person sitting inside says, “I know I am being called, someone is calling me,” but they don’t answer. Another person in a room hears the phone ringing. The person says, “someone is calling or I am being called. I know I am being called,” but they don’t answer the phone.

That would be crazy, but no crazier than when believers spend their life talking or thinking about being called, but doing nothing. To be called is to be called to something, to move somewhere to respond. You have to answer that call, or that calling means nothing.

If you are a believer, you are being called, and the first step is to begin by answering that call. God called His people throughout the Bible, but you only read about those who became heroes and heroines, those who answered the call. No calling is complete until you answer it.

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 2 Timothy 1:9

Answer God’s calling on your life today. Take action to serve Him where He is moving you.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Heaven Throufh the Branches…

Every year in autumn, the children of Israel celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. During the Feast of Tabernacles, Jewish people were required to live in sukkahs.

These were huts, made of branches and fruit. Each sukkah had to be constructed so that you could see the stars of heaven through the branches of its roof. Their homes were much more comfortable than their sukkahs.

They were solid with no gaps to see the heavens. The sukkah was humble, but it was opened up to heaven. It’s easy to get comfortable in your life to the point where you can’t see heaven anymore – so that you don’t rely on the Lord. You stopped leaning on the Lord.

You’ve put a real solid roof over your head and over your relationship with God. Your routine, busyness, security have formed a roof over your head that’s blocking you from relating to God as you used to. Break open the roof.

Come back to the simplicity of your faith, as when you first came to the Lord, with nothing. Simplify your walk and heart so that you might again see the stars through the branches.

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Psalm 63:1

Today, break through the barriers that separate you from God. Open up your heart so that you can clearly see Him.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Into the Deep…

During the Hebrew Feast of Tabernacles, Jewish people took part in the Water Drawing Ceremony. They’d draw water from the Pool of Siloam and bring it up to the Temple Mount. They’d pour out and recite Isaiah 12, “And in joy you shall draw waters from the wells of salvation,” or the wells of Y’shua.

This is the same word as Yeshua, Jesus’ real name. It’s very likely that at this moment, when the water was being poured out during the Feast of Tabernacles, that Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.”

Jesus’ speaking about WELL WATER – the kind of water spoken of at Tabernacles. “INNERMOST” is important. Well water comes from INSIDE. The abundant life God has for you wells up from inside. Stop seeking to be filled up from the outside in; by money and things.

Seek to be filled from the inside out, from the love of God in your heart. The true rivers of living water flow from a well of salvation, the well of Yeshua.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

Be filled with God’s love deep in your soul and let that love pour out of you in acts of kindness today, giving freely and mightily in His name.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Gravity of Sin…

Everything with mass has gravity and pull, and attracts other objects. The mass of the earth pulls us to its center. If we can break out of that gravitational field, we are free. We would have no more weight; we could float. Outside of gravity, there’s no burden.

Sin has spiritual gravity. First comes the pull of sin, then the heaviness and the burden of sin. How do you deal with sin? Like the law of gravity, you get far away from it as far as possible.

First get away from the actual sin and then away from the vicinity of it, the circumstance and the people that would tempt you, the suggestion, the situation, the shadow, the thought of that sin, the proximity to that sin.

How do you get away from gravity? Move in the direction of the heavens, closer to the Lord, to His word and His love, His activities, to the people and places of God, to the worship and the will of God.

Draw closer to God, and the pull of sin will release. Your life will become light and free, because in the heavenly places, there is no gravity.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:7-8

Surround yourself with God’s word, His people and His worship; so that sin has no pull on you and no temptation will distract you.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Bully’s Bluff…

To this day, historians are amazed at the rise of Adolf Hitler. He was an unsuccessful artist, a misfit, yet he ended up taking control of Germany, then Europe, and almost the world.

He had a tactic that he used from the beginning to the end – intimidation and bluffs. He continually threatened those who would stand in his way, and often his threats were bluffs. Had he been firmly challenged, he would have been defeated.

The people around him believed his bluff and they surrendered to him and the bluff became real. That is Satan’s nature and tactic against you. The deceiver will claim that he has more power than he does, and that you have less power in God than you do; that you don’t have the power to resist the temptation.

But it is not true unless you give in! You stand with God; you stand on His promises. You don’t give in; you fight him and overcome. For “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” Don’t give in, because no matter what it looks like, it’s ultimately a bluff–a bully’s bluff.

But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. You are my strength, I sing praise to you; you, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely. Psalm 59:16-17

Today, stand strong in the Lord’s strength. Do not panic when the deceiver threatens you. Stand and fight, take authority over all attacks that come at you.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Your Days of Niddah…

Zechariah 12 foretells Israel’s final Yom Kippur, the day of their redemption and cleansing. The Hebrew word for impurity is Niddah. It’s used to describe a woman’s uncleanness who can not be touched by her husband. Israel was meant to be the Lord’s beloved, and He their husband.

For two thousand years, Israel has been in Niddah – a state of ritual impurity. Her sin is against the Lord, and thus, He couldn’t touch her or redeem her. In the day she confesses her sin and repents before God in Messiah, her Niddah shall be taken away. She’ll no longer be separated from Him. She’ll be His bride, and He, her husband.

We as believers separate ourselves from God with a Niddah heart – a heart that stays far from Him, a heart of sin. The New Covenant means that our days of Niddah are over. There’s to be no more separation between you and God for any reason.

Be cleansed and be brought near. For the Lord is calling you close, to be cleansed, and freed from that impurity so you can be brought into His arms and end the days of your Niddah.

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. Zechariah 12:10

Confess that sin that separates you from God today. Search your heart and draw nearer to Him with unending prayer.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Reality of Sacrifice…

In the Bible, the most holy day centers on a goat. A goat isn’t a high status animal. Yet on Yom Kippur, the most holy and sacred day of the Hebrew calendar, is centered on a goat called Lazazael – the Scapegoat.

This goat had to be sent away and disappear into the wilderness. Then the most holy day was fulfilled. The day became holy because a goat disappeared. When you look at yourself, it’s easy to see…a goat. The old self is pretty much a goat. You see all your faults – it’s not attractive – you see a goat.

Then, you must remind yourself that goats are potentially holy. They made Yom Kippur the most holy day of the year by making themselves disappear. When you feel like a goat, make yourself disappear.

Die to yourself, get out of the way, and stop dwelling on your faults. In the grace of God, you have the power to do that. Stop dwelling on that goat so you can start dwelling on the Lamb. It will become for you the most holy day – as soon as you make that goat disappear.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation  for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2

Set this day for letting the old you disappear; forgetting about yourself; not dwelling on you; but getting lost in His goodness.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed